The Radical Reformation Tradition: Anabaptists, English Separatists ...

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106 Divergent Riversthe baptismaJ act, there was a laying-on of hands with the words, 'Thus art thou nowburied with hirn by baptism into his death.' Then a verse was sung,His death and passion ever,Till soul and body sever,Shall in thy heart engrav'd remain.And the Liturgus declared,Now therefore live, yet not thou, but Christ live in thee. And the life, which thounow livest in the flesh, live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved thee andgave himselffor thee.The second order has different versicles and responses, different catechetical questions,different hymns and formu1a for the imposition of hands, but the core baptism materialis the same. The baptismal rite of adults includes the Lord's Prayer recited in parts bythe Liturgus, the choir and alt The credal questions give a good summary of theMoravian understanding of baptism:L. Dost thou believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, by whom are all things and we through hirn? Answer: I do. L. Dost thou believe, that he is thy Lord, who redeemed thee, a lost and undone human creature, purchased and gained thee from all sin, from death and from the power of the Devil, not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood, and with his innocent suffering and dying? Answer: I verily believe it. L. Dost thou desire to be cleansed from sin in the blood of Jesus Christ, and to be buried into his death by holy baptism? Answer: That i8 rny sincere desire. L. Dost thou desire to be embodied into the congregation of Christ, by holy baptism, which is the laver of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, and in his kingdom to live under hirn and serve hirn in etemal righteousness, innocence, and happiness? Answer: That is my sincere desire. The credaJ questions differ in the baptism of adults 'From Among the Heathen', butcontain nothing which could not have been in the first order of adult baptism.The mode of baptism seems to have been by pouring water. Engravings of variousMoravian baptisms were published in 1757. 22 One for an infant shows the child beingheld by the parent, and the pastor pouring water over the baby's head from a basin ona (cornmunion?) table. That of a Negro shows a rite of exorcism before the baptism,for which there was a large tub of water on the floor. An engraving of NativeAmericans being baptized shows them kneeling over a tub, and water is poured ontheir heads, and similarly an engraving of baptisms in Greenland has three male and22 Kurze. zuverlässige Nachricht von der, unter dem Namen der Bähmisch-Mährischen Brüder bekanten,Kirche Unitas Fratrum Herkommen. Lehr-Begrif, äussern und innern Kirchen-Veljassung und Gebräuchen,n.p., 1762 edition by David Cranz. I am indebted to Colin Podrnore for drawing my attention to theseengravings.
Some New Churches ofthe 18th and 19th Centuries 107two female candidates kneeling around a large tub on the floor, and the pastor pouringwater over their heads. Another plate indicates that the kiss of peace was exchangedafter the baptism of adults.The Lutheran Pietism of Zinzendorf, with his emphasis on the passion of Christas the sacrificed Lamb of God, and the need for the benefits to be heart-felt, gaverise to the Moravian rite of baptism which stressed the Pauline idea of baptism intothe death of Christ. However, it was not so much concerned with being 'dead' interms of being buried, but of being baptized into the c1eansing blood of the sacrificedLamb. This emphasis gave rise to the preface to the triune formula, 'In the death ofJesus I baptize thee ... " and there are references throughout the rite to the woundsof Christ and his blood. Baptism here is firmly soteriological, and centres on theatonement.lohn Wesley and MethodismJohn Wesley met Moravians on his journey to Georgia, and in May 1738 was at theAldersgate Moravian meeting when his heart was 'strangely warmed'. For a time hewas associated with the Fetter Lane Society, which was 'Moravian in foundation andcharacter, even if initially Anglican in membership' .23 He visited Herrnhut, and knewZinzendorf. He also met Swedenborg, though he certainly did not share the latter'slater theology. Thus the Methodist tradition, though to become considerably largerworld-wide, and more well-known than the Moravians, shared a common Pietistorigin.There has been considerable discussion over what exactly Wesley taught on baptismsince some of his statements seem ambiguous. Gayle Felton has suggested that,although there may be ambiguity, confusion has been often due to a failure tounderstand Wesley's distinctions. Felton notes:Significant examples are his differentiation between the outward and inwardaspects of a sacrament, his two-fold understanding of the nature of regeneration,and his divergent interpretations of the infant and adult baptism. An attempt toelucidate his theology of baptism must also be grounded in a Wesleyanunderstanding of salvation as a life!ong, dynamic process rather than a fixed,achieved state. 24To further complicate efforts to pin down a 'Wesleyan' understanding of baptism,Wesley's followers did not feel bound by his teaching or his liturgical rites.Wesley was influenced in his Oxford days by High Church Anglican views, andhad read and accepted some of the principles of the Non-jurors, particularly that onlya minister with valid episcopal ordination could effect a valid baptism. He read worlesby Daniel Brevint and the Non-juror, Robert Nelson, on sacraments, and William23 Podmore, The Moravian Church, p. 40.24 Gayle Carlton FeIton, This Giß (!(Water. The Practice and Theology ofBaptism Among Methodistsin America, Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN, 1992, p. 48.
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